Friday, 19 May 2017

Five on Friday - Albany WA

Hello

Nice to see you. I'm linking up with Tricky and Carly for Five on Friday today, do follow the link to see what everyone's been up to this week.

We've reached Albany on the Southern Ocean, the furthest point from Perth on our Road Trip. We're staying here a couple of nights to explore the area and our B&B has turned out to be really quirky with cases and cases of old cameras on display - around 3,000 and the walls are covered with row upon row of full size oil paintings, copies of old masters made by painters in China.

You can see the Princess Royal and Oyster Harbours and King George Sound in the map below which make the views from Albany very special over what appear to be lots of islands. Its cooler, cloudier and even a bit drizzly, but then that's just what we are used to.

One - Town

Albany is the oldest permanently settled town in Western Australia, is a port and houses the National ANZAC Centre as this is where soldiers from the Eastern States set off to Europe in WWI. I'll tell you more about that in another post. There's an historic whaling station which we didn't visit and you can also watch whales migrate between June and October.

Two - Porongurups

There are so many National Parks in the area. The Porongurup mountains, further inland, are cloaked in forests of karri trees. We headed off to Castle Rock for the Granite Skywalk.

The views were intermittent but what a fantastic walk through the forest alongside these enormous rocks.

Three - Blowholes

At the Torndirrup National Park on the coast, there are blowholes. The noticeboard below tells how they are formed.

You might be able to see a cloudiness in the picture as this is the water and air being whooshed through the blowhole with a great Whoomph! Quite spectacular, when you are actually there!

Four - Gap and Natural Bridge

Just round the corner is this natural bridge created by erosion which is still at work today. I never get tired of watching the sea roaring in over the rocks.

Five - Windfarm

The 18 wind turbines rotated majestically in the mist. The plants and the spiderwebs were covered in droplets of drizzle and looked fabulous.

Your trip is so exciting! The BnB sounds really cool and quirky, exactly the type of place we love to visit, you always have a memorable time in places like that. Hope you have a wonderful weekend, thanks for Joining us for Five on Friday

I'm enjoying your Australian trip. The view of those islands must have been amazing and the sea rushing through the rock bridge mesmerising. I recognise the James Cook pine as we have some in Sheffield Winter Garden! I wonder how the hole in the karri tree got like that?

What a wonderful place to visit! I love the tree with the hole in it. I haven't ever been to Australia but I have an Aunt who emigrated there from England when I was a child. She used to send me wonderful things from there.